Bremerton doctor gets 9 months for sexually assaulting women patients

PORT ORCHARD -- A doctor at a Bremerton clinic who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting five female patients during exams was sentenced Monday to nine months in jail, the maximum sentence.

Calling the allegations against Darren Michael Chotiner, 49, “extremely egregious,” Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Sally Olsen said it was not appropriate given the allegations to allow Chotiner to serve the sentence on electronic home monitoring, instead requiring him to report to jail Oct. 1 and serve the sentence in custody.

Chotiner had initially been charged in 2015 with two counts of second-degree rape and five counts of indecent liberties, all felonies, for sexual assaults on women at Peninsula Community Health Services. After about three and a half years of interviewing witnesses following the Bremerton Police Department's investigation, Chotiner pleaded guilty to reduced charges which Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Koo told Olsen were a “significant departure.”

The charges Chotiner pleaded guilty to are one count of second-degree assault, a felony, and five counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation, gross misdemeanors.

The charges account for five victims, but Olsen ordered Chotiner to have no contact with a total of 22 women listed in court documents as victims.

“After interviewing all of the witnesses, these are the charges the state felt it could prove,” Koo told Olsen.

Chotiner will not be required to register as a sex offender. His license to practice medicine was suspended in late 2014 after his arrest.

Although he entered a guilty plea to the charges, Chotiner maintained his innocence, writing in court documents at the time of his guilty plea that given the “substantial risk” of going to trial on the original charges he wanted to plead guilty to lesser offenses and take advantage of a “favorable plea bargain.”

No victims and no supporters of Chotiner elected to make a statement to Olsen before she sentenced Chotiner, who also declined to make a statement to Olsen.

The hearing was interrupted when Chotiner, who was standing in front of Olsen and being fingerprinted, apparently fainted and fell to the floor. South Kitsap Fire and Rescue medics were called to the courtroom, but Chotiner had since been revived and waved them off.

Koo told Olsen that following the resolution of the criminal case the civil case would proceed.

The women interviewed by Bremerton police alleged a wide range of misconduct under the pretense of treating them, including touching their genitals and thrusting into them. One women reported it appeared Chotiner had ejaculated in his pants.

One woman told investigators she struggled with understanding if what Chotiner had done was appropriate, warning to trust her doctor’s judgement.

“She didn't want to accuse Dr. Chotiner and get him into trouble if what he was doing was right,” an investigator wrote.